In the course of giving a tennis lesson, a large number of tennis balls are frequently used by the student and instructor. For example, between one-hundred and two-hundred balls may be used in a single half hour lesson and remain scattered over the tennis court at the conclusion of the lesson. Students or other players themselves also have the occasion to use a large number of balls in a practice session. As a result, considerable unproductive time and energy is often expended in picking up the balls by hand at the end of a lesson or at the end of a practice session.
Wire form pick-up baskets with a special bottom are sometimes used by instructors and players to reduce, to some extent, the effort required in picking up scattered balls. Such a device, however, is not adequate in that it holds only a relatively small number of balls, is cumbersome to use and requires considerable time to pick up a large number of balls.